Although some sources report that the Protestant Church received formal recognition in 1933 through a Beylical decree, the Ministry of Religious Affairs stated in 2012 that Tunisians belonging to Christian communities lacked any legislative framework to exercise their religion in public. The CSO Attalaki reports that these congregations operate under foreign supervision, but Tunisians are not recognised. The Catholic diocese of Tunis takes care of the main Christian cemetery of Borgel (which is next to the Jewish one) in Tunis. This means that all Tunisians born with a Muslim name (i.e. everyone except those born to Jewish families) who converted to other religions, such as Baha’ism and Christianity, do not have the right to be buried according to their faith, with exceptions made for the few who went through the official Catholic baptism.
While restrictions remain in place to this day, there are signs that the community is able to enjoy greater visibility since the 2011 revolution. On 15 August 2018, for example, the Festa della Madonna started being celebrated again in La Goulette, near Tunis, after decades in which it was not possible. The ceremony followed the Catholic rite and was mostly recited in French, with some parts in Italian. At the end of a speech on coexistence in Tunisia, the sub-Saharan African congregation launched into songs and danced.
Some civil society organizations, such as the Tunisian Association for the Support of Minorities, report that there is nowadays a growing number of formerly Muslim Tunisians who have converted to Christianity. While conversion is not criminalized under Tunisian law, the social taboos are so widespread that these groups generally prefer to remain hidden. Many face ostracization and even violence from their own families due to the stigma surrounding conversion.
Converts may also be harassed by security forces and officials. In November 2016, nine young Christian converts were stopped in Gafsa by anti-terrorist forces and threatened if they did not renounce their faith. The security agents claimed they were targeted not on account of their religion but due to suspicious behaviour. In February 2020, a group of foreign missionaries were arrested for reading the Evangel. Although the news was reported by several outlets, the legal basis upon which they were accused remains unclear.
Source link : https://minorityrights.org/communities/christians-8/
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Publish date : 2024-01-23 17:09:15
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